Strategy and outlook

The bank has implemented a number of initiatives to improve customer satisfaction, resulting in a significant improvement in the NPS ratio for individual customers, reaching TOP4 among banks in Poland – up 3 positions from 2022. The Bank has been building a long-term relationship with its customers by remaining the bank of first choice for more than 5 million primary customers, representing an increase by 6% y/y. Measures aimed at improving the retail customer experience included:

• identification of the most important areas for improvement in the customer service paths and a number of implementations, of which the most important are the implementation of service LiveChat, personalised tables of fees and commissions improving price transparency;
• implementation of customer service digitalisation processes – we were the first bank in Poland to implement solutions enabling customer service using a digital ID (mObywatel);
• carrying out more than 20 activation, relationship and internship campaigns;
• implementation of a project aimed at simplifying the language of communication both within the organisation and with customers and stakeholders – 70 female and male ambassadors in the PKO Prosto („PKO Straight”) programme;
• implementation of initiatives to strengthen the attitude and customer-oriented culture in the organisation – CX Galaxy, CX Day at PKO Rotunda;
• including NPS indicators in targets for management bonus goals and carrying out competence development initiatives among the Bank’s employees.

The NPS in the corporate customer segment improved at the end of 2023 remaining on track to reach TOP3 in 2025. In 2023, as part of improving the corporate customer experience and addressing key areas for improvement, the Bank implemented a number of new solutions. See Section 8.6 for a detailed description.

In 2023, PKO BP continued its work to align its offering and service model with the needs of customers in branches and in digital channels. The bank developed digital channels in terms of technology and products. Achievements in this area are presented in Section 8.6

In addition, in 2023:

• 47 more branches were upgraded to new formats and 21 branches were converted to cashless branches, for a total of 51 branches operated by the Bank;
• the Customer Assistant function was extended to further branches (see Section 8.7 for details);
• further processes, as well as identification using the mObywatel application, were implemented on customer screens in branches. At the end of the year, 29 sales and service processes in branches were available on screens and nearly 91% of the instructions within these processes are carried out digitally;
• the functionality of the IKO app was extended to include new capabilities (see Section 8.6);

The bank carried out a simplification programme to simplify its offering, digitise processes and automate after-sales service. The programme leads to the achievement of the strategic objective of nearly 100% availability of cases for individual customers in iPKO or IKO. At the end of 2023, the indicator was 98%.

In 2023:

• customers were provided with, among others, a new version of the iPKO online exchange service, change of telephone number, new process for submitting complaints in the iPKO service (for details, see Section 8.6);
• a function presenting investment costs, information on contributions and limits for Individual Retirement Security Accounts (IKZE) and Individual Pension Accounts (IPA) was introduced;
• in the wake of the new implementations, the Bank also carried out customer education activities presenting extensive self-service opportunities in remote channels.

In 2023, the Bank continued to develop the ecosystem of non-bank services under the VAS platform and carried out a number of measures to improve the attractiveness of its offering to young people. The initiatives launched translated into delivering on the Bank’s strategic objective in terms of growth in the number of new young customers, in line with the stated trajectory. The base of so-called primary customers aged under 35 increased by 7% y/y. The Bank’s strategy emphasises innovation, the expansion of its digital offering and the provision of tools to make everyday banking easier for young people, which translates into strengthening relationships with its youngest customers. In 2023, the number of contactless BLIK transactions has almost doubled, and the number of „selfie” accounts opened has increased by 15% year-on-year.

In 2023:

• a new sales process was implemented for the PKO Konto Pierwsze (PKO First Account) in iPKO/IKO, the 500+ Rodzina – Rodzinny Pakiet Oszczędnościowy (500+ Family – Family Savings Package) account and the Pierwsze Konto Oszczędnościowe (First Savings Account) with an interest rate of 8%;
• the Bank’s customers were the first to be offered payment cards made of recycled Ocean Plastic®;
• the range of accounts was simplified and streamlined, e.g. the Konto Pierwsze (First Account) was merged with Konto dla Młodych (Account for the Young) – the number of accounts was reduced from 19 to 8;
• the commitment to support the financing of the first home for young families continued (see Section 8.1 for details;
• a new Junior application was made available to customers, and the Bank continues to work on the new parent role in iPKO and IKO. For details on the PKO Junior application, see Section 8.6;
• campaigns were carried out to promote the image of a Bank that is “proven in action”, a campaign to promote remote services in the IKO app, and a number of acquisition and promotional activities in respect of the offering for young customers;
• initiatives aimed at strengthening the PKO Bank Polski brand’s presence in the world of the young were supported: sponsorship of sport and the use of the Metaverse world or the VAS platform. For more information, see Sections 8.5 and 8.6;
• the PKO Płacę później (PKO Pay Later) limit was made available, reaching almost 175 thousand active limits by the end of the year.

As part of its strategic activities in the corporate customer segment in 2023, the Bank:

• continued work on the „product multiplatform”. A „single sign on” link to the PKO Leasing Customer Portal and integration with further customers’ financial and accounting systems was implemented. The proportion of customers who use financial and accounting systems available for integration with the Bank reached 35% at the end of 2023;
• in order to speed up the lending process, the so-called simple credit path, eDecision (decision made in the lending system), the credit risk auto-monitoring process carried out with the support of the CRM application, as well as the automatic generator for the so-called short agreement were implemented;
• conducted advanced work on freeing up the time of regional advisors and analysts

The bank also developed its offering in the corporate and business segment. Activities in this area were implemented with a particular focus on the digitalisation of service processes and the optimisation of lending processes. The main implementations in 2023 included:

• the provision of multi-user access to the iPKO website;
• the provision of new lending products including, among others: a multi-purpose credit limit with a de minimis BGK guarantee and an ARiMR liquidity loan;
• development of an ecosystem of non-banking services;
• integration of service processes and systems with PKO TFI and launch of the development of an employee and customer satisfaction measurement system (eNPS/NPS) in the Bank’s Group companies.

Delivery of the strategic goal of 20% growth in non-bank revenues of the Bank’s Group companies over the strategy period reached 14% and is on track with the assumed trajectory.

Measures to achieve the ESG goals are presented in Section 13.

A key aspect of technological development in the strategy horizon is the optimisation of the development process and the shortening of the period from idea to implementation. Optimisation involves both increasing the use of DevSecOps or Agile working methods, as well as reducing technology debt and simplifying the Bank’s application architecture. In 2023, the Bank’s team implemented significant changes to the Bank’s key IKO application release model, including:

• implementation of cybersecurity functions at the software development stage;
• introduction of a number of qualitative DevSecOps metrics;
• preparation of a synergistic „roadmap” for IKO development;
• development of IKO infrastructure based on microservices. At the end of 2023, the modern architecture had 35 microservices in operation vs. 24 at the end of 2022;

By implementing the aforementioned solutions, the Bank has reduced the time to implement changes to the IKO production environment by 28% over the last year

In response to the increasing number of tasks, a number of initiatives were carried out in the area of operations. In 2023, owing to the use of repetitive Robotic Process Automation (RPA) activities in handling the so-called Government Loan Holidays and to support the processing of applications for the so-called Safe 2% Loan, robots performed work equivalent to more than 600 FTEs. In total, 65 processes were robotised and 82 were modified in 2023. The robots carried out 77.3 million operations in more than 100 processes in the operations area, more than 170 processes in other areas, including audit, tax or restructuring, and 19 processes of the Bank’s Group companies.

In 2023, the solutions of the Process Robotics Platform team were recognised in the following competitions:

• Best in RPA – 3 rd place in a competition organised by „Computerworld”;
• Special award „Mocarze Hiperautomatyzacji” for PKO Bank Polski.

The Bank also optimises processes through elimination, standardisation, optimisation using lean six sigma methods and automation. Despite the progressive centralisation of the group companies’ operational functions and the increasing number of tasks, the Bank has maintained its cost discipline. The current level of STP (straight through processing) automation of operations area processes is close to 60%.

The implementation of strategic goals depends first and foremost on employee engagement, retaining and attracting talent and creating a supportive environment for growth. Therefore, the Bank aims to increase employee satisfaction. At the end of 2023, this goal was achieved – the eNPS of employees increased by more than 20 points to 45 points for the fourth quarter of 2023. The Bank’s activities in this regard were implemented through:

• implementing a quarterly experience survey process (eNPS) and elaborating on the findings at team and bankwide level;
• extending the benefit package to include elements expected by employees (including the choice of any medical package, an increase in total points on the MyBenefit platform, an additional day off, a higher reimbursement amount for glasses, the pilot launch of the MultiLife training and development programme; a package for retirees) and continuing the digitalisation of employee processes;
• developing a well-being strategy and implementing numerous initiatives to support employee well-being in terms of physical and mental health;
• enhancing the organisational culture – a cultural profile has been developed and implementation of new organisational values has been initiated through the #naWARTOŚCIowani campaign, a value-driven leader and employee model has been developed;
• increasing the involvement of leaders through a defined new profile of expectations based on new values and priorities for cultural change and increasing their impact in HR processes, e.g. including them in the design of HR policy solutions;
• defining a list of key competences with a strategy for the development of each of them and launching bank-wide programmes for the development of these competences for employees and trainees;
• launching an educational initiative to support the building of an equal opportunities bank and inclusive leadership;
• organising the market’s first virtual job fair in the Metaverse space and implementing a comprehensive internal mobility programme within the Group;
• expanding the range of learning activities to include digital formats and greater accessibility of training content.

The second strategic objective addressed by Pillar 6 is the participation of women in MRT positions. With changes to the incentive system, building succession programmes and changes to the culture based on new organisational values, the Bank wants to achieve the goal of 30% participation of women in MRT positions by the end of 2025. At the end of 2023, this figure stood at 22.7%.

The Bank monitors and identifies potential acquisition targets for institutions in Poland and in the region. Analyses are conducted with a view to obtaining the benefits of transactions identified in the strategy (including: expertise and talent acquisition, technological synergies, customer base acquisition, business synergies, business and geographic diversification).